Allen Community College found the winning recipe Saturday: take a bushel of hits, spice it up with air-tight defense, and top it off with some dandy pitching.
The Red Devil softball team thumped visiting Independence, 8-1 and 3-0, to snap a four-game skid and even Allen’s Jayhawk Conference record at 2-2 (7-11 overall).
“It was a good day,” ACC head coach Nicole Peters said. “We came out and played collectively as a team, which is what we’d been pushing for the last few times out. Everything clicked for us today.”
Madelynn Collins set the tone in the opener, scattering seven hits while striking out nine in her complete-game victory.
Skyler Jackson picked up the baton from there, and tossed a four-hit shutout in game two, striking out four.
“They did a really good job getting ahead and keeping them off balance,” Peters said. “It was really nice going into our second conference series.”
Still, Peters sees room for improvement. While the Red Devils were able to push across a number of rallies, they still left a number of runners on base.
In fact, Allen twice came up dry despite putting two runners on base in the first three innings of game one before erupting in the bottom of the fourth.
A hit batter and an error sandwiched around a Kinsey Stuewe single loaded the bases for Bella Gravatt, who promptly blasted a double to right field that emptied the bases. Collins followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0. She came around to score on Lacey Stamper’s double for the fifth run.
Stuewe kept up the fun in the fifth by smashing a two-run home run in the fifth to make it 7-0.
Stamper’s RBI triple in the sixth capped the scoring.
Stamper’s 3-for-4 day was a home run short of the cycle to pace the offense. Stuewe had two hits, including a home run. Gravatt doubled. Hitting singles were Chloe Rogers, Mikayla Long and Collins.
Jackson was hardly deterred after Indy loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first by retiring the next two batters on a strikeout and fly ball.
Allen was a bit more opportunistic in its half of the first. Haley Gedrose reached on an error and scored two batters later on Long’s RBI double.
Alayna Brown kickstarted a two-run second-inning rally by reaching on an error, moving to third on a Jaydee Pulliam single and stealing home. Pulliam, who had moved to third on a Pirate error, was pushed home on a squeeze bunt by Aubrey Willis.
That was more than enough for Jackson, who allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the fourth, but retired the next three batters to end the threat. Independence also tacked on a leadoff single in the fifth, but Skyler retired the next three on a foul pop, fly ball and a ground out.
